PATERSON — In a dispute that dragged on for eight years, the city has agreed to issue $166,666 worth of retroactive checks to 33 emergency medical technicians for pay raises that go back as far as 2003.

The individual payouts range from about $2,500 to $9,900, depending on the EMTs' circumstances, according to public records. The city also is paying $83,333 to the lawyer who represented the EMTs in the case, under a settlement approved by the City Council last month.

Paterson terminated all 33 EMTs in 2011 as part of the layoffs imposed during that year’s budget crisis. The medical response duties are now handled by city firefighters.

The recent settlement covered pay raises the EMTs claimed they could have received between 2003 and 2007 — long before the layoffs.

Angelo Bisceglie, the lawyer for the EMTs, said Paterson officials deliberately delayed the legal proceedings. He said the city seemed to believe that the low-paid EMTs could not afford a protracted legal battle.

“The city figured they would just go away,” Bisceglie said. “There was clearly an effort to place obstacles in the way of getting this resolved.”

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Councilman Michael Jackson said the situation reflected what he thought was mistreatment of the EMTS — many of whom lived in Paterson.

“Previous administrations have been negligent of Paterson people,” Jackson said. “This is just another example of that.”

Mayor Andre Sayegh and Paterson Police Chief Troy Oswald both support a plan to designate a troubled stretch of Union Avenue as a crime "hot spot," forcing businesses to close at midnight.(Photo: Amy Newman/NorthJersey.com)

Bisceglie said the city’s decision to lay off the EMTs in favor of using firefighters was financially shortsighted. The lawyer said the layoffs of the EMTs initially produced savings because the firefighters who took over the medical work were paid with federal grants for a few years.

But once the grants expired, Bisceglie said, the city ended up paying much more for the medical response services by using high-salaried firefighters in that role.

Mayor Andre Sayegh said Paterson benefited from making the switch because the EMTs were taking "an inordinate number of sick days."

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